A different set of colors

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As I was saying, we’re still having dense displays of mixed wildflowers in central Texas. If the last post favored yellow, here’s one where the color of the horsemints, Monarda citriodora, predominates. Some Mexican hats, Ratibida columnifera, and firewheels, Gaillardia pulchella, are mixed in.

Date: May 16.  Place: a thankfully still undeveloped piece of prairie on the east side of Interstate 35 adjacent to a funeral home in far north Austin.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman

We interrupt our regularly scheduled milkweed post…

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We interrupt our regularly scheduled milkweed post to remind you that many meadows and fields in central Texas are still home to dense stands of mixed wildflowers. Here you see primarily two species that have already appeared in individual views in these pages, Mexican hats (Ratibida columnifera) and coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria). Note that the rays of the Mexican hats vary from virtually all yellow to almost completely brown. The traces of pink mixed in with the yellow and brown are horsemints, Monarda citriodora. This has been a good year for all three of those wildflowers.

Date: May 11.  Place: Brushy Creek Lake Park in Cedar Park, an adjacent suburb to the north of Austin.

The antelope-horns milkweed series will resume presently (in its original sense of ‘soon’).

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman